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 | Jerusalem Outside the Walls Reviews | Tips 11 - 20 of 132 |  |
 | |  |  | Outside the Walls: Dormition Abbey: Where Mary Slept | Tip Rating:   |  |  | |  |
The Church of the Dormition (“Dormi-tzion” in Hebrew) on Mt. Zion is built over the spot where according to Christian tradition, the Virgin Mary fell into an eternal sleep (dormitio = sleep). The Turks presented the land to the German emperor Wilhelm in 1898, and in 1906, the German Benedictines built a church on it in the style of a medieval German fortress. All you need is a moat. There is no way you can miss this building: It juts up prominently on the Old City skyline, above the ancient walls, with a kind of helmet-shaped roof. Next to it is a high bell-tower. The Benedictines recently renamed the church “Hagia Maria Sion” in an effort to reconnect with its Byzantine past. Like most of the religious sites in Jerusalem, it is probably built on ancient ruins. The main chapel is arranged around a circular mosaic on the floor featuring signs of the Zodiac, names of saints and prophets, and a verse from the Book of Proverbs (8:23). Don’t stop here. Go down to the subterranean crypt to see a life-sized statue of Mary on her deathbed (see next tip). Every two years, the church gives a prize – the Mt. Zion Award – to people who have made a contribution to Christian-Muslim-Jewish dialogue. Leave a Comment Directions: On Mount Zion, down the road from the Zion Gate.
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| | | | Outside the Walls: Heavenly Accompaniment | Tip Rating: | | | | |
We visited the Church of the Dormition late on a Friday afternoon. The place was deserted – no tourists, no visitors. Just us. As we descended a flight of stairs to the underground chapel marking the place where the Virgin Mary is said to have fallen into an eternal slumber, there was an eerie silence. Under a richly decorated cupola lay a life-size carved wooden statue of Mary on her bier, eyes closed, hands clasped, with large candles burning on either side. In the center of the cupola, Jesus is depicted calling his mother to heaven. The circular inscription, from the Song of Songs, reads: “Arise, my darling, my fair one, come away” (2:13). On the inside panels are famous women in the Bible: Eve, Miriam, Yael, Judith, Ruth and Esther. The acoustics in the crypt are amazing. My husband, who used to sing with a choir, sang a few notes. All of a sudden, an unseen organ began to play, like a bolt out of heaven. We looked around, open-mouthed. Had his voice triggered the music? Back upstairs, a nun walked by with a basket full of what appeared to be laundry. She said a new organist had arrived and sat himself down to practice… Leave a Comment Directions: Dormition Abbey, Mount Zion
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Jerusalem
on September 13, 2006
on October 18, 2004
